Mike Farah's presence in last weekend's Heartland Poker Tour tournament appeared to be short-lived. But Farah survived an all-in bet with a few chips and a chair and nearly rode them to an improbably victory.

Farah, a 62-year-old bar and restaurant entrepreneur from Grand Rapids, was down to three chips early in the tournament, but recovered to place fourth at the Majestic Star Casino in Gary, Ind.

Farah collected $30,326, cashing for the second time in a HPT event. He finished 17th, good for $5,041, during a tournament at the same venue in April of 2008.

Farah, who bought in directly for the $1,100 main event, made his way through a field of 457 and was the chip leader entering the six-player final table.

But Farah thought he was well short of the final table, and out of the tournament, after losing set over set on the first day of the event before the first break.

"I thought the guy had me covered so I was getting up to leave when the dealer told me that I had three chips left," Farah said. "It was pretty interesting."

Farah worked his way back up from 600 in chips and ended the first day as the chip leader at 94,000.

He fell back to 40,000 on the second day, but rebuilt his stack and became the chip leader with six players remaining.

Farah said he was "card dead" at the final table and his chip stack dwindled.

"I couldn't put two cards together," Farah said. "I tried to buy a pot early on and got caught and I was just card dead from the time I sat down."

With four players remaining, Farah was second in chips to Bob Whalen of Cudohy, Wisc., when the following hand arose:

Farah (1.4 million in chips) had K-Q and the flop came K-Q-10. But Whalen (1.8 million) had pocket kings and Farah's tournament came to an abrupt end.

"I wasn't getting any cards, and I think I got too excited when I finally had two decent cards to play," Farah said. "I should've thought about it more and reasoned it out, but I was just too exited.

"It really came down to that hand between us, and that hand determined the winner. I would've had 4.5 million, and I felt like if I would've won that hand then that would put me in the driver's seat and I would've won the tournament."

Whalen ended up knocking off the final two players to pocket $129,967 for first place.

Farah, who has been playing poker for 30 years, was hoping for a bigger payday.

"My boys and I just bought another bar on Michigan (Street), so $100,000 more would've come in handy," he said. "I really thought it was my turn (to win)."

Grand Rapids resident Jeff Blenkarn also cashed in the event, finishing 34th for $1,603. Blenkarn also cashed in a World Series of Poker event over the summer for $3,231.